1. Field
An aspect of the present invention relates to a battery pack.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a battery pack is used in portable electronic devices such as a notebook computer using a battery as a power source. In the battery pack, a plurality of batteries (or bare cells) can be connected in parallel or in series to have set or predetermined voltage and current levels, and the connected batteries can be assembled in a case with a set or predetermined shape. If the temperature of the batteries becomes too high, the batteries may be damaged, and further, a system that receives power supplied from the batteries may be damaged due to an explosion of the batteries. Hence, where the power supplied from the batteries is supplied to the system, it is very important to control the temperature of the batteries.
A thermistor can be used as a protection device in a battery pack to sense a temperature level that is determined to be a condition for disconnection of the batteries in the battery pack. However, where the thermistor is attached to a specific battery cell or provided between battery cells, the thermistor measures only the temperature of a portion of a battery pack. Therefore, when a defect occurs in a cell other than the cells having the thermistor attached or provided thereto, it is difficult to precisely measure the exact temperature of the entire battery pack, or temperature measuring can be slow or delayed. Hence, due to the imprecise or slow measurement of the thermistor, a protection circuit using a thermistor may take action that is too late, resulting in a problem such as damage to the battery pack or to the system receiving power from the battery pack.